Half-Life 2 Comments by Kristan Reed

£23 from tesco!

I love it probably because I didn't play the PC version haven't even opened Battlefield 2: MC yet.

Ok ok... my PC runs this pretty badly. I will get it, apparently it runs in HiDef on 360 anyway.

Hmmm, gotta get :)

Ill pick it up when its in the bargain bin. Played it on the pc already and it doesnt really add anything. It was a bit of an disappointment on the pc imo. Still fun though.

What, only 1 lot of 9/10, rather than the PC versions 3 x 10 gush-athon?

Hmmmm...picking boxes up using a gamepad must pale next to doing it using m/keys. ;)

never been one to keep up with the arms race on the PC so i have only played this on the xbox and my god how good. love the gravity gun - best thing ever...i have only just recieved the gun and i easily spent 1 hour messing around with it.

or lack of a possability of every other mod that's on the PC version.

OR it's God-knows long long AFTER the PC version...

Or the fact the framerate regularly dips.

Er, you can spin the roundabout iirc!

Otherwise, great review. Having played the PC ver to completion, and half way through the Xbox version, it's good to see a review that, AT LAST, acknowledges some of the games flaws. It is a great game, but I was rather puzzled on its release that nearly everyone described it as PERFECT - the so-so AI, the slight shortcomings in pacing, the ultra-ultra linearity (not necessarily a bad thing, but a tad more freedom would have been nice) and the deeply unspectular vehicles left it, for me, a little short of that accolade.

I believe some mods reveal the AI to be actually pretty impressive (not tried them myself), but thats irrelevent in relation to this version.

apart from the fact that you can't push the roundabout in the City 17 playground

ahem. yes you can

Edit: COCK!

What? No mods? Oh noes!

: huggles PC

haven't even opened Battlefield 2: MC yet.

I hope the Eurogamer team have.

Half-Life 2's AI: It's actually pretty good, but woefully under-utilised. It seems to be tuned to be very forgiving towards players, so while enemies know full well how to take cover, they take just a little bit too long for such a tactic to be effective against many players' reflexes...

Loads of people keep claiming MINERVA's got new AI code, but it hasn't - I just tweaked the NPC damage settings so that enemies are more dangerous, and thus much more fun to play against for hardened FPS players. Have a go at playing HL2 through MINERVA, it's well worth it - type map d1_trainstation1 or something at the console to start.

I'm sure we'll see more of these kind of games on the 360 (Doom, Quake, Half-Life), it would be great if a console WoW was to come out as well

You kind people misunderstand me!

Of course you CAN push the roundabout in the PC version, but the point I was making in the review is that you CAN'T in the Xbox version.

Of course you CAN push the roundabout in the PC version, but the point I was making in the review is that you CAN'T in the Xbox version

And that's where you're wrong. I personally played on the roundabout this very weekend. On Xbox.

No no, you CAN push it in the Xbox version! I'm (pretty) sure of it! :)

/can't be arsed checking

GOTCHA

>> GOTCHA

lol

irresistible game. completed it on pc, now at episode #11 on xbox.

I thought it was a good review I picked it up for silly money during that tesco.com sale thing so i am more than happy with it.

Roundabout-pushing patch to be dl'ed on Xbox Live?

You bloody well can push the roundabout, I did it not 24 hours ago

edit - aha, I see we've covered that already. Flipping great game though

Hrm, well I stood pushing the blessed thing and it did nay budge!

Hrm, well I stood pushing the blessed thing and it did nay budge!

For as wise man say it is not the man who pusheth the roundabout, but the roundabout who pusheth the man.

what about the swings?

if you can't push them then we've got ourselves a dealbreaker

You can push the roundabout... Think you press the Y button to do it? Something like that but 100% can do it... Not that it makes this juddering masterpiece any better. All the baddies seem to have terrets/epileptic fits when ever the action gets going... Frame rate issue gets looked over a bit too much I think.

!You can push the swings!

I thought it was just me, but it took me close to 3 hours to complete Route Kanal and Water Hazard, and was thinking 'this is overly long and samey'. Glad to see it was pointed out in the review.

Frod, with certain games, the mod community plays an important part in the value of the game. Morrowind is a good example of this, though the game is excellent without it of course. Just as multiplayer is important with certain games, and not with others.
Half life is a good example of a game that was pushed forward extensively by the mod community.

I would also devalue a game like HL2 on a console because I couldn't use a mouse, but that, I think, is something I'm alone with, everybody else seems to have embraced it.

I've never played any FPS with a mouse, 2 analog sticks suits me down to the ground

Clearly the mouse vs joypad argument comes down to preference as you can play a well-designed FPS just as easily with both (personally I prefer the joypad).

"I've never played any FPS with a mouse, 2 analog sticks suits me down to the ground"

I'm the same! I've never had enough cash to get a PC that would run the latest fps games, so I've always been happy with the (hassle free) console versions.

Gawd damn, I used to kick me some buttock online with the Dreamcast's Quake 3!

the roundabout works best if you time it to hit the bars, I think, but yes, you can definitely push it

Frod. i was trying to explain why the PC version might have got a 10, and the xbox version 'only a 9'.

Very fair review - in fact, much better than most reviews of the PC version. Having played it on the PC and had a while to mull over it, I think all the criticisms raised here are more than fair - they actually drag the score that the game (in my humble opinion) deserves to a competent 8/10.

The story begins quite promisingly, but simply goes nowhere at the end. Sure there are a number of fabulous set pieces in there (fighting the striders towards the end being a high point), but I found the buddy AI (artificial incompetency) to be painful to the point of annoyance when they go and get themselves blown up for the umpteenth time.

I know I'm in a minority saying this, but I really did enjoy Doom 3 much, much more. I'm almost finished playing Resurrection of Evil now and I've enjoyed that a load more than HL2 - more atmoshpere, better graphics (although the people in HL do look more realistic, the monsters and environments in Doom3 are superior), more satisfying weapons... I just enjoyed the whole experience a lot more.

Now you see I hated Doom 3 and I love FPS games it was just mindless and samey to me.

Did someone just say doom 3's graphics were better than hl-2's?!?

WTF?!?!?

Why no multiplayer? Live is *not* compulsory. Offline multiplayer would do the trick even better, since, as the article points out, very few xbox-owners actually play online.

Tut! All these posts, and no-ones said it!

Better than Halo then?

Fucking right its better than halo.

I totally agree with the score - I just hope it didn't miss a 10/10 simply because it didn't have multiplayer options.

Some game review sites are marking it down as low as 8/10 because it's missing multiplayer - to me it's a crazy decision.....don't we have enough CTF, DM etc etc Halo Clones already`?

Quite, jesus, does anyone actually *care* about the 400th deathmatch clone anyone? Answers on a postcard...

Well if the 401st deathmatch clone is "Quakeworld-The Return" IM THERE BABY!

Developers have a great time.

If multiplayer isnt included a point should be ticked off, just because. Doesnt matter if its good or not. The 5-10% of xbox live players says so.

Xbox-users also must be able to exchange any music-track playing in the game, screw the developers... they have no clue.

I dont like Xbox-gamers.

keyb/mouse vs controller debate is a non debate in terms of which is the easiest, most intuitive and accurate, a console gamer would stand no chance against a pc gamer in any online fps game

Personal preference in wanting games to work out of the box, not to have to enter the upgrade space race, and wanting to sit on a sofa are another matter altogether of course :)

it'll upscale it and apply AA, but I imagine the game experience itself, including framerate, remains untouched

Frame rate wont remain the same when played on the 360, as its emulated the CPU and GPU - with the PS2 it uses the old PSX CPU (which is normally the I/O controller) to run the game, and just get the GPU to output the graphics. which is why they can look better but still run slowly.

@better than Halo comments

1. comparing half life 2 to halo is like comparing Driver 3 to ICO

2. its a very very old game (halo) let it go

I wonder if Valve have actually thought about the Xbox360 more since they may have been aware that BC was in for some time, they might have left some of the higher resoloution textures on the disc. Its unlikely but not impossible, would be nice to see non the less. You dont need a high def tv for higher res textures(rather than screen resoloution) so thats something everyone would appreciate along with AA.

OR!! They have a sense of humour and enjoy the history that comes with being part of the best online communities there is?